One of the key points when working on GD Rating System plugin was to make it slim and optimized for speed and low memory usage and still allow on having a powerful and feature rich plugin. So far, plugin performance is very promising.
GD Rating System uses addons based and very modular structure differently optimized for admin side and front end. Depending on admin side operations, plugin will load some files only when needed. So, on admin side GD Rating System uses 1.6MB of RAM and adds 2.1% to total page loading time (with all Pro addons loaded). Compare that to JetPack plugin using the average of 5.5MB of RAM and adds 40% to total page loading time (or more depending on JetPack features used). On front end, GD Rating System uses 1.2MB of RAM and adds 2% to total page loading time. Compared to that, JetPack uses average of 4.2MB of RAM and adds 25% to total page loading time. Current GD Rating System uses on average 2.5 times less memory than old GD Star Rating plugin.
GD Rating System uses internal cache system that hooks into WordPress cache system. Plugin also adds own database layer to speed up some common query types and make database operations standardized. All plugin data is handled through specialized objects that are cached when needed to speed up the plugin and minimize the number of SQL queries. Most important is the way plugin loads, where you can disable every individual module, or enable only what you need. This can lower the memory use to 0.5MB od admin side and 0.4MB on front end. This way you have full control over the features you need and want to use.
In the coming days, I still plan to optimize some of the SQL query functions and make few more smaller changes for better performance and speed. Ultimate goal is to have plugin that is useful and powerful, but with low resource fingerprint to allow all users to use it without performance issues.
GD Rating System
Check out the release countdown, plugin demo and list of features. Development log is updated daily with current changelog and features development progress.
